1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for dividing impositioned image data into a plurality of pages, and to a method of controlling this apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
For jobs in which imposition binding has been performed by a DTP (Desktop Publishing) application or utility, there is a function for repetitive job introduction by storage in the memory of an image processing apparatus. This has made it possible to shorten the time it takes to perform imposition binding of image data. However, with regard to jobs in which imposition binding has been performed by a DTP application or utility, there may be a need to obtain an output in which imposition and binding settings have been removed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-285610 proposes an image processing apparatus in which re-printing is prepared for by storing pre-RIP data in a memory. This makes it unnecessary for the user to re-introduce a non-imposition job from an application and therefore shortens operation time. Further, Japanese Patent No. 3912012 proposes an image dividing apparatus for dividing images from impositioned image data. With the image dividing apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 3912012, a plurality of pages of page image data are divided based upon an image file, in which a plurality of items of image data have been impositioned, and the job settings.
However, the following problems arise in the prior art mentioned above: For example, with the image processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 200 6-285610, it is necessary to store image data in memory beforehand in order to perform re-printing, and the size of the image data stored in memory becomes very large. As a consequence, it is necessary to increase memory storage capacity or to place a limit on the number of documents that can be stored.
On the other hand, with the image dividing apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 3912012, only post-RIP data is stored in memory and hence there is no particular problem ascribable to memory storage capacity. However, when the number of bound and impositioned pages increases, the problem is that the operation of dividing impositioned images takes time.